In the last decade, the electronics industry has invested substantially in time and money in bubble device technology. The attraction for this investment has centered on the expectation of a rapidly expanding buble memory market. These devices serve to span the gap between expensive semiconductors and the mechanically sensitive magnetic disks and tapes.
The substrate material for these devices is composed of a stoichiometric composition of gadolinium-gallium oxides, Gd.sub.3 Ga.sub.5 O.sub.12, commonly referred to as gadolinium-gallium garnet or GGG. Current fabrication techniques for these materials result in the generation of the order of 80% by-products that are based on relatively expensive starting materials. A method for the recovery and separation of high purity oxides, so that the material could be re-used in the process in a practical manner would aid significantly the economics of production of GGG wafers.
While the problem of by-product recovery and purification has existed for a number of years in the industry, and attempts to recover by-products have been reported such as the means that involves digesting the scrap material, precipitating the gadolinium and electrolytically depositing the gallium as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,231, no satisfactory practical way is known for efficiently recovering the by-product in an economically attractive manner. It is thus apparent that a need exists for improved means to recover gadolinium and gallium in view of the substantial economies involved.